When I'm walking around looking for things to shoot, especially for HDRs, I am looking for architecture that stands out against the skyline. I love lines, color, and contrast, so if I can find all three in a particular scene, I'm going to try and see what I can come up with.
When processing HDR's you have to be careful not to over-process the image. Now, on my HDR's I am intentionally going for a more surrealistic look, since that's what I like. However, if for example you are being paid to shoot interiors of a building, and you want to expose the inside of a room versus the windows facing outside, the surreal look just won't work. In this case, you have to be very careful to make sure your shots are well-exposed and merged properly. If you look at good real estate photography, you'll notice that when you're standing in a room and looking outside, you can always see the room clearly and the outside area clearly. HDR's are perfect for that kind of thing, and certainly much easier than hours upon hours masking in Photoshop.
If you notice in the image below, while it is a cool HDR, it's slightly over-processed because of the "ghosting" around the buildings. Sometimes it looks cool, but in this case it's a bit much, so I would bring this back through my editing process to eliminate how extreme that looks.
On this image, I love how the HDR brought out the detail under the archway. You can see all of the wood rafters, as well as into the building.
Here's an example of how lines can create an interesting graphic element within the scene. The tall building in the background looks like a grouping of emerald crystals when standing far away. I thought it was cool to show it as a part of the block in downtown San Diego. Compared to much of the South-Western look of the downtown area, this building it seems to grow out of the ground and makes a striking addition to the San Diego skyline.
Hope you like this set of photos! More to come!
-Steve